Bird migration may be facilitated by an ability to see and navigate the Earth’s magnetic field. The process is suggested as being started by light entering a bird’s eye. Light would excite two electrons of a molecule in the bird’s eye in such a way that one electron was moved to another molecule. However, the two electrons would remain quantum entangled despite being separated. This means that a change in the spin or magnetic orientation of one electron would immediately alter the spin of its entangled partner.

The Earth’s magnetic field would alter the spin orientation of the electrons, and thus alter the chemical properties of the molecules. It is suggested that this could leave varying concentrations of chemicals throughout the bird’s eye, and that this could constitute a picture of the Earth’s magnetic field. Cryptochrome, in the presence of blue light, is the most likely candidate for a chemical that could be influenced by this process.

Experiments have shown that changes in the magnetic field at only one thousandth of the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field can effect the orientation of the migratory European robin. Studies also suggest that entanglement can survive in the robin’s retina for up to 100 microseconds, compared to the best so far achieved, in super-cooled laboratory conditions, of only 80 microseconds.

From the point of view of quantum consciousness, the European robin research, along with research on photosynthetic organisms, is interesting in appearing to refute the fifteen-year-old and often trumpeted study of Max Tegmark purporting to show that quantum features could not be functional in biological matter.